1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a fish stringer to facilitate keeping fish alive and restrained in the water after caught.
2. Description of the Related Art
Keeping freshly caught fist alive and healthy at the fishing site has long been a problem for people who fish. Some people use creels or buckets filled with water into which the fish are placed. But as the fish breathe the water, the oxygen content of the water is lowered and the fish may die. Other people use a cord secured to the fish by running the cord through the gills of a fish and out the mouth of the fish. One end generally has a fixed barrier and the other end is free to thread through the gills and mouth of the fish and then secured to a boat or object on the bank of the body of water. The fish are then allowed to stay in the body of water they were caught in which tends to keep the fish alive and healthy for a longer period of time. However getting the fish back off the stringer usually means removing the fish caught last before one can access the fish first caught.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,124,154 to L. O'Russa on Nov. 07, 1978 for a Fish Stringer shows individual fish holders strung on a cord.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,827,661 to G. H. Wendler on May 09, 1989 for a Fish Stringer describes a stringer and bracket assembly. The stringer is a cord having a loop on one end and the cord has a series of interspaced loops along its length. The bracket is attached to a boat and has a cord retaining slot which grips the cord at a loop.
U.S. Pat. No. Des. 318,314 to D. D. Watkins on Jul. 16, 1991 for a Fish Stringer shows a fish stringer having a gill insertion lance that doubles as a retaining snap to secure the stringer to a boat or other object.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,038,514 to B. Yong-Set on Aug. 13, 1991 for a Fish Stringer describes a three-legged reclosable fastener with a snap closure and a spring loop to springingly bias two of the legs apart.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,301,859 to R. A. Brummel on Apr. 12, 1994 for a Fish Stringer shows a cord having at least two sections pivotally fastened together by swivels and having a removable end stop held onto the cord by a hairpin clip.
Since often the first caught fish should be cleaned first, the other fish have to be replaced onto the stringer if the user desires to keep them alive to be cleaned later. This presents a time and effort problem to the user. The present invention solves this problem by designing a fish stringer apparatus, removably attached to a cord, that allows the first to be caught fish to be removed from the fish stringer without having to remove and replace all the previously caught fish.